Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1887-07-30
GLOVE MAKING.
Facts About the Man ufacture
OF Hand Coverings.
Whers Four-Fiths Of All American Made
Gloves are Produced.

the world does not know how the other
half lives; and we have little fear OF
contradiction when we make bold to
declare that probably one-half Of the !
people of the United States do not know
where their gloves come from. OF course
it is generally known that gloves of fine
kid, such as ladies wear, and gloves of
q certain form which fashion prcscribes
for men, are brought from abroad but
whence comes the great supply Of all the
other glovesl The answer would not be
very far wrong if one were to say from
Fulton County, New York. Four ffths
of the gloves made in America, it is es-
timated, are manufactured in the county
named, and the manufactures which
make gloves elsewhere are in great part
the chlllren of Fulton County, indebted
to her for their nurture and their esthb-
lishment in life.
The headquarters Of the glove-mak-
ing industry in Fulton County are forty
five miles northwest of Albany. in
Johnstown township. The villages of
Gloversvlls and Johnstown, in that
township, contain population of about
twenty thousand, seven-eighths of
whom are glove makers. There are up
ward of one hundred and fifty glove
manufactures in the section. Glove
making in what is now Fulton County
was begun early in the present century.
Upon the passing away of Sir William
johnson, the famous Indian agent of
colonial times, and of his son Sir John,
a Jealous Tory who fought tierceIy for
/ King George the Dutch farmers of the
teighborhood looked about for some
better means Of support than were
oMred TO them by the soil, which was
not fitted for husbandry, although there
was good grazing land upon the stony
hill-sides. A shrewd family from Con-
n2ct;cut are probably credited with in
Producing into the neighborhood the
manufacture of buckskin gloves. There
was in the convenient North Woods in
those days supply Of material for this
manufacture so great that nobody
would have thought it could ever be ex-
hausted but the demand Of the Amerl-
7 can people for gloves proved to be still
greater, and the North Woods deer
ceased to be depended upon by the
Fulton County glove makers years ago.
To-day the gloves manufactured in
Gioversville and Johnstown are made
of skius brought from the most distant
parts Of the globe. The great bulk are
buckskins and sheep skins, but there are
many others which the glove makers
use-among them seal skin, dog skin,
East India cowhide, and the skin of the
South American water hog. The bulk
of the buckskin comes from Mexico and
Central and South America. The deer
of the tropics is covered with heavier
skin than covers the deer Of these lati
tudes, and the finest sheep skin comes
hoin oou'h -A'''e'' "nH 40 'h"s "a AN
Cape hair skeeP. lhe coarser the
wool, the inner the SKIN, Is glove
makers saying. All manner OF luFs' TOO
60 TO Fulton county, TO be useo III nn-
lshins the gloves.
The business OF glove making IN Fui
ton County amounts to about eight mil
lion dollars yearly. The wages oil th'
, most sklllful workers-thc table cutters
as they are calicd-run from sixty tt
eighty dollars month; block cutter:
get from fifty-tive to sxty-fve dollar
| monthly, and machine girls earn, &C
, cordIng to their skill, from six dollars
, to twelve and even fourteen dollars
week
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